Dynamics of Modernity: Berman Canclini

Dynamics of Modernity: Berman Canclini Compare and contrast Marshall Bermans and Nestor Garcia Canclinis account of the dynamics of Modernity To be modern is to live a life of paradox and contradiction. It is to be overpowered by the immense bureaucratic organizations that have the power to control and often to destroy all communities, values, lives; and yet to be undeterred in our determination to face these forces, to fight to change their world and make it our own. (Berman:1983:13-14) Modernity has long been hailed as one of the most powerful forces to have emerged in the world, with the capacity, according to Marx, to move mountains, and to ensure that all that is solid melts into air. Within the statement by Berman that begins this essay, we can see one of the dynamics that has created this impression. Modernity, despite its deeper roots, begins to be talked about by a series of thinkers who combine a high degree of abstraction with a imperative to act. Thus Marx argues for huge motors of historical telos that exist outside of our will, and at the same time argues for an immanent need to change historical conditions. This relationship between abstraction and concreteness is perhaps the most fundamental dynamic of modernity. It gives rise to the planned economies of communism, and the controlled biopower of modern states that Foucault (1998) talks about, which attempt to rule over the function of life itself. At the same time is gives rise to what Badiou (2005:12 ) calls the passion for the real; the search for an authentic existence in the absence of the certainties with which previous epochs lived. What is crucial about these two movements is the way in which they inflect each other. The idea of authentic will becomes possible only with the collapse of grand narratives and the rise of administered life, and the administered life then uses the same notion of self-fulfilment within consumerism to further be able to administer biopower. It is this covalence that is fundamental to modernity, and which this essay will argue is entirely misunderstood by Berman. One of the reasons for this is that, as Braudel (1995:14) notes, â€Å"each civilisation tends to overestimate its own objectivity.† Likewise, each age tends to see itself as more unique than the last. However, this is particularly a problem with the period called modernity because during this period it was thought reason could break with the past, and a utopia of the state was possible. We can see this legacy in both the Communist economies and in the artistic movements such as Marinettis futurism, which had as its mot to: â€Å"make it new.† It is precisely this trap that Berman falls into: confusing the ideas of modernity with the effects of modernisation. In fact, Bermans fetishished notions of will and authenticity, played out in the ahistorical telos of his modernist planar development, resemble nothing as much as a 19c treatise on the movement of history. Perhaps part of the reason for this is the combination of Bermans European sources with his background in the strong individualist tradition of American pragmatism, as we can see in his first book (1970). Canclini stands just south of Berman, but from the perspective of Mexico, modernity is a not a finished project to be talked about nostalgically in the way Berman does. Because this project is unfinished, Canclini is much better placed to understand the complex and intertwined relationship between what is constructed as tradition and what is constructed as modernity. His notion of hybridity, placed in the context of a heavy reliance on Gramscis theory of hegemony, allows one to understand that supreme category of modernity: tradition. For instance, Canclini notes (1995a:53) that there is no clear line between popular and hegemonic culture, because (ibid:75) peasant culture is necessary for capitalism as a symbol of national identity and because (ibid:83) it offers the construction o f a hegemony through the management of cultural fragmentation.† Thus modernity can be seen here as a hybrid form whereby old identities are mobilised rather than changed and uprooted. Canclini understands that modernity, if it means anything, means a change in underlying structure rather than the type of cultural universalism which lies as the undertone of the work of Berman. This essay will consider how Berman sets up the dynamics of modernity within this ahistorical schema, and argue, as previously alluded to, that he misses the important aspects of the relation. It will also be argued that Canclini, within his much more modest project, understands the underlying dynamics of the abstract and the concrete to a far greater degree. Perhaps Bermans problems begin with his tripartite division of modernity into modernity, modernisation and the modern, without every looking at how these categories are mutually constitutive of each other. Modernity, Berman explains is (1983:15): â€Å"a mode of vital experience – experience of space and time, of the self and others, of lifes possibilities and perils.† Bermans book is more of an evocation than a scholarly argument, but nonetheless is seems pertinent to insist on some evidence for such a claim: did other ages not experience space and time? The problem here is not simply that Bermans generalisations do not tell us anything about modernity, but that they conceal the real dynamics of the process. For instance, Berman often insists on the sense of newness, of authentic experience, within modernity. Yet understood as what Berman construes it to be, the sense of the new is not an experience particular to modernity at all. What is important here about the dynam ics of modernity is the way in which the experience of the new, what Berman calls modernity, is an essential part of the process of modernisation. This has been argued well by one of Bermans claimed inspirations, Walter Benjamin, whose Arcades Project (2002) traces the way in which a sense of wonder was used to create the consumer sensibility. This is also laid out in the work of Canclini, who chronicles the powerful political effect created by constructing modernity as something to come – around which one can mobilise people towards new identities and on new political projects. However, this is a discursive effect, rather than a fundamentally new ontological possibility for the modern subject, and Berman asserts the latter as a property of the former without giving a single argument. Instead, Berman (1983:15) gives us evocation and adjective, one strung after the other. The underlying dynamic of modernity for him is: â€Å"modernity is a paradoxical unity, a unity of disunity: it pours us all into a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and anguish.† Underlying all this purple prose is Marxs statement, that inspires the books title, that all that is solid melts into air. Yet what Marx is talking about is the ability of capital to undermine use-value and create a world of people alienated from their labour and extracted of surplus value. Now one can take issue with Marxs account, (as Baudrillard (1983) most usefully does by pointing out that use-value is also a fetishisation, this time of authenticity, and that the original alienation occurs with the construction of value) but what he draws attention to is the way people see the imaginaries of capitalism as real: capital is perceived by people in Marx as somethin g actually existing, rather than a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration. Here, Berman fails to give proper account of why he diverges from Marx. What can we salvage from Bermans account of the dynamics of modernity? It is true to say that the political subject in modernity was thought of as massively flexible and capable of continual reinvention. Though it must be added that this notion has much broader historical roots that Berman gives credit for: one can already see it in Machiavellis (2004) notion that people are capable of masking their intentions and this constitutes the basis for politics. However, this continual possibility for reinvention led to some of the most firm sets of continuities the world has seen for some time: the idea of class war, the tradition of the French bourgeoisie, and the modern state. Berman writes off in a few lines most of the great thinkers who have analysed this mutually constitutive relationships, Adorno here meriting a line. Canclini, in contrast, is alert to the way the supposed newness of modernity function to preserve power, and in his account of modernity in Mexico draws attention to th e the way newness is made a continuity of ritual and hegemonic power. Berman then separates out modernization as the social process that brings this maelstrom into being. In doing so he outlines some clear divisions between the phases of modernity. These phases resemble nothing so much as the clear evolutionary steps of early modern thinkers like Morgan. In doing so he makes a mockery of the patient work of people like Arrighi (1994), who have worked to uncover all the continuities that exist between different periods. Furthermore, his account is not even internally consistent. There is insufficient clarity in his work as to the difference between the 19C and 20C: Pushkin and Biely are made manifestations of the same movement, despite the widely different impulses that inform their work. What Canclinis work manages to do very well is to understand the way in which modernity, more than any other epoch (for it is the epoch of men who make history themselves without reliance on religious narratives) is complicit in its own construction of history. He trac es the way in which history is used as a political tool, and that the function of the type of planar divisions Berman uses is to extract a continuity from a succession. Which is to say that such divisions function as a political tool to extract a notion of destiny and objective inevitability from a history which is contingent and uncertain. Bermans one-sided and simplistic reading of modernity reaches its apex in his account of the American city. His account is a one sided view of power, as if Le Corbusier had artfully created American cities and all the modern man needed to do was stand up against this bloody tyrant. Canclini (1995b: 743-755) charts the way in which the modern man is complicit in the spaces that he builds, and that the solution is to problems of alienation that occur in such spaces is not some type of revolt by a careful reworking of the practices and delimitations of space that occur in the city. It is working through the very dynamics of modernity that one resolves its problems, and to do so requires an understanding of their complex inter-relation. Such an understanding is accurately posed by Jameson (1992:335) in his understanding of how it was the very construction of space in Los Angeles that led to the possibility of that constructions overthrowing. Furthermore, Berman misunderstands how contest ed Le Corbusier is in architectural theory. He fails to see the varying currents that inform modernity and that produced a diverse and heterogeneous formation of space, even within Le Corbusiers own school (Rabinow: 1991). Theoretically, he also fails to see what De Certeau (2002:19) has persuasively argued for, which is that it was the very relationship of time and space in modernity that leads states to forget the possibility of space. He argues that the spatial organisation laid out by the modern state was predicated on a notion of time as mode of organisation (e.g. wage labour) and a possibility of reinvention which necessarily allowed the particularities of space (as somewhere one has a proper place and a tradition that cannot be reinvented) to left to the people. Thus the conditions for contesting the state in modernity emerges from the intertwining of the micro and macro processes. These complex processes are ignored by Berman, because he is looking for a will-to-power to set against what he sees as the large bureaucratic structures of modernity. This is why he is so against Foucault, who attempts to set out the co-relation between these things. In attempting to find human creativity outside of any sort of system (though without offering any kind of rigorous account of how that might be achieved) he gives to much credit to bureaucratic systems. Canclini, in understanding how the four divisions of modernity he sets out (the rationalising, renovating, emancipatory and democratising projects) are frequently in conflict and lead to a conflicting and contested legacy, is in a much better position to understand. Ultimately, Bermans work seems as if it was written with a long nostalgia to badly understood 19C authors. He uses a notion of freedom as fetishised will (where he deploys what one could reasonably call a notion at all) without understanding that the development of modernity has destroyed this very category. As Zizek (1999:389) artfully pointed out it is the search for the real, for fetishised will, that, when not placed in a grand narrative, ends up in indulging in its simulacrum; the real emptied of risk. Likewise, it is the bureaucratic form of government that has led to the globalisation and decentralisation of its own form. These processes are ignored by Berman, who sees modernity as a universalism, even if a contradictory one, issuing like a new beacon of hope from a centre in Europe. Canclini understands modernity as a hybrid formation that cannot be tied to Europe, and has begun to chart the complex ways that modernity brings to bear on itself, and construct it own legacy. Bibliography Arrighi, G. 1994: The Long Twentieth Century. London: Verso. Badiou, A. 2005: La Sià ¨cle. Paris: Seuil. Baudrillard, J. 1983: For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign. London: Telos. Benjamin, W. 2002: The Arcades Project. Harvard: HUP. Berman, M. 1983: All that is Solid Melts into Air: Experiences of Modernity. London: Verso. Berman, M. 1970: The Politics of Authenticity: Radical Individualism and the Emergence of Modern Society. New York: MacMillan. Braudel, F. 1995: A History of Civilisations. London: Penguin. Canclini, N. G. 1995a: Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. Canclini, N. 1995B: Mexico: Cultural Globalization in a disintegrating city. American Ethnologist. Vol. 22, No. 4: pp. 743-755. de Certeau, M. 2002: The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: UCP. Foucault, M. 1998: The History of Sexuality: The Will to Knowledge. London: Penguin. Jameson, F. 1992: Postmodernism: Or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. London: Verso. Machiavelli, N. 2004: The Prince. Oxford: OUP. Rabinow, P. 1991: French Modern: Norms and Forms of the Social Environment. Mass: MIT. Zizek, S. 1999: The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology. London: Verso.

Music Appreciation and the Auditory System :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Music Appreciation and the Auditory System Have you ever come home after an exhausting day and turned on music to relax your nerves? While you are taking it easy, your auditory cortex is not. It works hard to synthesize the several musical elements of rhythm, pitch, frequency, and timbre to create a rich auditory experience. First, a discussion of the ear physiology is needed. Vibrating air moving at different frequencies hits the eardrum which causes the middle ear's three bones to move accordingly. The stapes, one of these inner ear bones hits on the oval window of the inner ear, and because the inner ear is filled with fluid, the bulging of the oval window causes this fluid to slosh around. The round window, also in the inner ear, compensates for the increased pressure by bulging outward. The inner ear has two functions, to transduce sound via the cochlea and to maintain a person's vertical position with respect to gravity via the vestibular system (1). . But here, we will only consider the transduction of sound. The cochlea is filled with hair cells that are extremely sensitive and depolarize with only slight perturbations of the inner ear fluid. At the point of depolarization, a neural signal is transmitted and on its way to the brain. This nerve impulse travels to the auditory nerve (8th cranial ne rve), passes through the brainstem, and then reaches the branched path of the cochlear nucleus: the ventral cochlear nucleus or the dorsal cochlear nucleus. The nerve signal that passes through the ventral cochlear nucleus will reach the superior olive in the medulla where differences in timing and loudness of sound are compared, and location of the sound's origin is pinpointed (1). The nerve signal that crosses the dorsal cochlear nucleus ultimately is analyzed for sound quality. As seen in the final step of sound transduction, the information relayed by the neural signal branches and processing occurs at different sights. No consensus has been reached as to where music is processed in the brain. Most researchers agree that the different components of music are processed in different parts of the brain, as exemplified by the branching pathway of the cochlear nucleus which facilitates the separation of sound timing and loudness with the sound quality analysis. But this information is not sufficient to answer the question of where our sense of music originates. Frackwiak has supplied a small part of the puzzle.

Management and Information Systems

Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm, 11e (Laudon/Laudon) Chapter 1 Information Systems in Global Business Today 1) Internet advertising is growing at a rate of more than 25 percent a year. Answer: TRUE 2) Developing a new product, fulfilling an order, and hiring a new employee are examples of business processes. Answer: TRUE 3) A fully digital firm produces only digital goods or services. Answer: FALSE 4) A business model describes how a company produces, delivers, and sells a product or service to create wealth. Answer: TRUE ) Information technology (IT) consists of all the hardware that a firm needs to use in order to achieve its business objectives, whereas information systems consist of all the software and business processes needed. Answer: FALSE 6) Computers are only part of an information system. Answer: TRUE 7) Information systems literacy describes the behavioral approach to information systems, whereas computer literacy describes the technical approach . Answer: FALSE 8) The dimensions of information systems are management, organizations, and information technology. Answer: TRUE 9) Knowledge workers assist with paperwork at all levels of the firm.Answer: FALSE 10) In order to understand how a specific business firm uses information systems, you need to know something about the hierarchy and culture of the company. Answer: TRUE 11) Business processes are logically related tasks for accomplishing tasks that have been formally encoded by an organization. Answer: FALSE 12) There are four major business functions: Sales and marketing; manufacturing and production; finance and accounting; and information technology. Answer: FALSE 13) A network requires at least two computers and a shared resource, such as a printer.Answer: FALSE 14) A substantial part of management responsibility is creative work driven by new knowledge and information. Answer: TRUE 15) Intranets allow firms to work easily with third-party suppliers and vendors. Answer: FALSE 16) An IT infrastructure provides the platform on which the firm can build its information systems. Answer: TRUE 17) UPS's use of Web-based tools that allow customers to embed UPS functions such as tracking and cost calculations into their own Web sites was an information systems solution used to achieve customer intimacy.Answer: TRUE 18) Government and private sector standards are examples of complementary social assets required to optimize returns from IT investments. Answer: TRUE 19) A firm that invests in efficient business processes is making an investment in organizational complementary assets. Answer: TRUE 20) In the behavioral approach to information systems, technology is ignored in favor of understanding the psychological, social, and economic impacts of systems. Answer: FALSE 1) The six important business objectives of information technology are new products, services, and business models; customer and supplier intimacy; survival; competitive advantage; operational excellence; and A) improved flexibility. B) improved decision making. C) improved business practices. D) improved efficiency. Answer: B 22) Dell Computer's use of information systems to improve efficiency and implement â€Å"mass customization† techniques to maintain consistent profitability and an industry lead illustrates which business objective? A) improved flexibility B) improved business practices C) competitive advantageD) survival Answer: C 23) The use of information systems because of necessity describes the business objective of A) survival. B) improved business practices. C) competitive advantage. D) improved flexibility. Answer: A 24) Which of the following choices may lead to competitive advantage: (1) new products, services, and business models; (2) charging less for superior products; (3) responding to customers in real time? A) 1 only B) 1 and 2 C) 2 and 3 D) 1, 2, and 3 Answer: D 25) Verizon's implementation of a Web-based digital dashboard to provide manage rs with real-time information such as customer complaints is an xample of A) improved flexibility. B) improved decision making. C) improved efficiency. D) customer and supplier intimacy. Answer: B 26) The move of retail banking to use ATMs after Citibank unveiled its first ATMs illustrates the use of information systems to achieve which business objective? A) improved efficiency B) customer and supplier intimacy C) survival D) competitive advantage Answer: C 27) An information system can be defined technically as a set of interrelated components that collect, process, store, and distribute information to support A) decision making and control in an organization.B) communications and data flow. C) managers analyzing the organization's raw data. D) the creation of new products and services. Answer: A 28) The three activities in an information system that produce the information organizations use to control operations are A) information retrieval, research, and analysis. B) input, outp ut, and feedback. C) input, processing, and output. D) data analysis, processing, and feedback. Answer: C 29) Order data for baseball tickets and bar code data are examples of A) raw input. B) raw output. C) customer and product data. D) sales information. Answer: A 0) The average number of tickets sold daily online is an example of A) input. B) raw data. C) meaningful information. D) feedback. Answer: C 31) Output A) is feedback that has been processed to create meaningful information. B) is information that is returned to appropriate members of the organization to help them evaluate the input stage. C) transfers data to the people who will use it or to the activities for which it will be used. D) transfers processed information to the people who will use it or to the activities for which it will be used. Answer: D 32) Converting raw data into a more meaningful form is called A) capturing.B) processing. C) organizing. D) feedback. Answer: B 33) An example of raw data from a nationa l chain of automobile stores would be A) an average of 13 Toyotas are sold daily in Kentucky. B) 30 percent increase in Toyota RAV 4 sales during September in Kentucky. C) 1 Toyota RAV4 sold March 3, 2008 in Louisville, Kentucky. D) all of the above. Answer: C 34) The field that deals with behavioral issues as well as technical issues surrounding the development, use, and impact of information systems used by managers and employees in the firm is called A) information systems literacy.B) information systems architecture. C) management information systems. D) information technology infrastructure. Answer: C 35) In a hierarchical organization, the upper levels consist of A) managerial and professional employees. B) managerial, professional, and technical employees. C) professional and operational employees. D) managerial, professional, and operational employees. Answer: B 36) Which of the six strategic business objectives did the NBA's use of Synergy Sports Technology help to achieve? A) customer and supplier intimacy B) improved decision makingC) new products and services D) operational excellence Answer: B 37) The fundamental set of assumptions, values, and ways of doing things that has been accepted by most of a company's members is called its A) culture. B) environment. C) atmosphere. D) values. Answer: A 38) Thomas Friedman's declaration that the world was now â€Å"flat† meant that A) the Internet has reduced the economic advantages of developed countries. B) globalization is starting to offer less advantage to large corporations. C) the global economy is increasingly commanded by fewer and larger corporations.D) global capitalism is homogenizing culture and business practices throughout the world. Answer: A 39) Data management technology consists of the A) physical hardware and media used by an organization for storing data. B) detailed, preprogrammed instructions that control and coordinate the computer hardware components in an information system . C) software governing the organization of data on physical storage media. D) hardware and software used to transfer data. Answer: C 40) The hardware and software used to transfer data in an organization is called A) data management technology.B) networking and data management technology. C) data and telecommunications technology. D) networking and telecommunications technology. Answer: D 41) Networking and telecommunications technologies, along with computer hardware, software, data management technology, and the people required to run and manage them, constitute an organization's A) data management environment. B) networked environment. C) IT infrastructure. D) information system. Answer: C 42) An example of a business using information systems to create new products and services is A) Wal-Mart's RetailLink system.B) the Mandarin Oriental hotel's customer-preference tracking system. C) Verizon's Web-based digital dashboard. D) Apple Inc. ‘s iPod. Answer: D 43) An example of a business using information systems to attain operational excellence is A) Wal-Mart's RetailLink system. B) the Mandarin Oriental hotel's customer-preference tracking system. C) Verizon's Web-based digital dashboard. D) Apple Inc. ‘s iPod. Answer: A 44) An example of a business using information systems for customer and supplier intimacy is A) Wal-Mart's RetailLink system. B) the Mandarin Oriental hotel's customer-preference tracking system.C) Verizon's Web-based digital dashboard. D) Apple Inc. ‘s iPod. Answer: B 45) Maintaining the organization's financial records is a central purpose of which main business function? A) manufacturing and accounting B) finance and accounting C) sales and manufacturing D) finance and sales Answer: B 46) Based on the examples in the chapter, if you were asked to formulate a plan for a regional drive-in restaurant chain's efforts to use information technology to develop a loyal customer base, what would be the best use of information tec hnology from the list below? A) Use IT to increase supplier loyalty.B) Use IT to increase operational efficiency. C) Use IT to create new products and business models. D) Use IT to help survive government reporting requirements. E) Use IT to achieve customer intimacy. Answer: E 47) The fact that online advertising revenues are growing at 25 percent a year, while offline traditional advertising revenues are growing at about 5 percent a year, suggests that A) Internet advertising is very inexpensive. B) offline traditional advertising is not very effective. C) the Internet is transforming the traditional advertising business model.D) new technologies are more efficient at selling to customers. Answer: C 48) Toyota Motor Company's vehicle orders management system allows it to improve efficiency by basing vehicle production on A) superior forecasts of regional demand. B) actual customer orders. C) improved decision making. D) customer preferences. Answer: B Diff: 3Page Ref: 15 AACSB: Us e of information technology CASE: Content Objective: 1. 1 49) In a business hierarchy, the level that is responsible for monitoring the daily activities of the business is A) middle management.B) service workers. C) production management. D) operational management. Answer: D 50) Which of the following are environmental actors that interact with an organization and its information systems? A) customers B) suppliers C) regulatory agencies D) all of the above Answer: D 51) From a business perspective, raw data is transformed systematically during various stages, transforming it into valuable information, in a process called A) the information value chain. B) the IT value chain. C) information processing. D) feedback. Answer: A 2) A corporation that funds a political action committee, which in turn promotes and funds a political candidate who agrees with the values of that corporation, could be seen as investing in which main category of complementary assets? A) managerial B) government al C) social D) organizational Answer: C 53) Apple Computer dominates the online legal music sales industry primarily because of a failure of recording label companies to A) invest in technology. B) adopt a new business model. C) invest in complementary assets. D) modernize their information value chain. Answer: B 54) An example of an organizational complementary asset isA) using the appropriate business model. B) a collaborative work environment. C) laws and regulations. D) all of the above. Answer: A 55) An example of a social complementary asset is A) technology and service firms in adjacent markets. B) training programs. C) distributed decision-making rights. D) all of the above. Answer: A 56) Disciplines that contribute to the technical approach to information systems are: A) computer science, engineering, and networking. B) operations research, management science, and computer science. C) engineering, utilization management, and computer science.D) management science, computer science, and engineering. Answer: B 57) The discipline that focuses on mathematical techniques for optimizing parameters of organizations, such as transportation and inventory control, is A) management science. B) MIS. C) operations research. D) utilization management. Answer: C 58) Sociologists study information systems with an eye to understanding A) how systems affect individuals, groups, and organizations. B) how human decision makers perceive and use formal information. C) how new information systems change the control and cost structures within the firm.D) the production of digital goods. Answer: A 59) Psychologists study information systems with an eye to understanding A) how systems affect individuals, groups, and organizations. B) how human decision makers perceive and use formal information. C) how new information systems change the control and cost structures within the firm. D) the production of digital goods. Answer: B 60) The costs for firms operating on a global scal e have been drastically reduced by A) networking technology. B) investments in organizational complementary assets. C) the Internet. D) the rise of digital content. Answer: C 1) Which of the following are key corporate assets? A) intellectual property, core competencies, and financial and human assets B) production technologies and business processes for sales, marketing, and finance C) knowledge and the firm's tangible assets, such as goods or services D) time and knowledge Answer: A 62) Overproduction or underproduction of goods and services, misallocation of resources, and poor response times are the results of a firm's having A) poor relationships with suppliers. B) poor relationships with customers. C) inadequate information. D) a surplus of information.Answer: C 63) A firm that must invest in new information systems capabilities in order to comply with federal legislation can be said to be investing to achieve which business objective? A) customer intimacy B) operational excel lence C) survival D) improved reporting Answer: C 64) Which of the following would NOT be used as an input for an information system? A) digital dashboard B) handheld computer C) bar-code scanner D) cell phone Answer: A 65) Which field of study focuses on both a behavioral and technical understanding of information systems? A) sociology B) operations research C) economicsD) management information systems Answer: D 66) The three principle levels within a business organization hierarchy are A) senior management, operational management, and service workers. B) senior management, middle management, and operational management. C) senior management, operational management, and information systems. D) senior management, middle management, and service workers. Answer: B 67) Engineers, scientists, or architects, who design new products or services for a firm, belong to which level of a business hierarchy? A) middle management B) production workers C) knowledge workersD) data workers Answer: C 68) Which main business function is responsible for maintaining employee records? A) sales and marketing B) human resources C) finance and accounting D) manufacturing and production Answer: B 69) Which of the following constitutes an organizational element in the UPS tracking system described in the chapter? A) the specification of procedures for identifying packages with sender and recipient information B) monitoring service levels C) promoting the company strategy of low-cost, superior service D) the use of handheld computers and networks for managing package delivery Answer: A 0) A managerial element in the UPS tracking system described in the chapter is A) taking inventory. B) providing package status reports to customers. C) the decision to use automation. D) in-house package tracking software. Answer: C 71) ________ is data that has been shaped into a form that is meaningful to human beings. Answer: Information 72) ________ is output returned to appropriate members of the or ganization to help them evaluate or correct the input stage. Answer: Feedback 73) ________ is a global network that uses universal standards to connect millions of different networks around the world.Answer: The Internet 74) Computer ________ consists of the detailed, preprogrammed instructions that control and coordinate the computer hardware components in an information system. Answer: software 75) The ________ is a service provided by the Internet that uses universally accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying information in a page format. Answer: World Wide Web/Web/WWW 76) ________ are private corporate networks extended to authorized users outside the organization. Answer: Extranets 7) The key elements of an organization are its people, structure, business processes, politics, and ________. Answer: culture 78) In a(n) ________ perspective, the performance of a system is optimized when both the technology and the organization mutually adjust to one a nother until a satisfactory fit is obtained. Answer: sociotechnical 79) ________ makes long-range strategic decisions about the firm's products and services. Answer: Senior management 80) Investments in organization and management, such as investments in new business models and training, are also known as ________.Answer: organizational and management capital 81) Define operational excellence. How can information systems help achieve it? Answer: Operational excellence is the achievement of higher levels of productivity, efficiency, profitability. Information systems can help achieve operational excellence by improving communications to supplier and optimizing the supply chain. Information systems could help managers communicate with workers more efficiently, enable technological innovation in products, minimize warehouse overhead, streamline distribution. 82) You work for an auto manufacturer and distributor.How could you use information systems to achieve greater customer intimacy? Answer: You could create a Web site that allows customers to customize cars, communicate with support personnel and other car owners. You could create an automated e-mail service reminding car owners to take their car in for periodic checkups. You could have an information system that tracks customer preferences in local areas, so you can provide cars that reflect local customer needs and desires. 83) What is the difference between information technology and information systems? Describe some of the functions of information systems.Answer: Information technology (IT) consists of all the hardware and software that a firm needs to use to achieve its business objectives. Information systems are more complex. An information system can be defined technically as a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store, and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization. An information system: †¢supports decision making, coordinati on, and control †¢helps employees analyze problems †¢helps employees visualize complex subjects †¢helps create new products 4) You are a marketing manager for a national movie theater chain. Give an example of data that your department could use for creating meaningful information. What type of information could that data produce? Answer: Movie ticket sales from individual theaters would be an example of raw data. Meaningful information from this would be: average number of tickets sold to seniors on certain days of the week. 85) Define business process. What might be a business process used at a hospital? Answer: A business process is a set of logically related tasks and behaviors for accomplishing work.Hiring a new employee, customer intake, and filing medical records are examples of business processes at a hospital. 86) You are starting a small bike messenger company. Given your type of services (hand-delivering packages within a small geographical area), could you r firm be a digital firm? If so, what would make this a digital firm? Answer: Being a digital firm doesn't purely rely on having digital goods and services. A digital firm would have most of its relationships with customers, suppliers, and employees be digitally enabled.Ordering deliveries, assigning deliveries, managing employees and assignments could certainly be digitally enabled; using cell phones, information systems, and handheld devices to connect customers, delivery management, and bike messengers. 87) This chapter discusses how each organization has its own culture and sets of values shared by most of its members. What kind of shared values might you find at a law firm? Answer: Shared values at a law firm might be: The legal system works, the legal system is fair, lawyers help people, and people need help with the legal system because it is complicated. 8) You work at the business headquarters for a chain of movie theaters. Describe this firm's information value chain. Answ er: An information value chain adds value to data at various stages, transforming it into valuable data. At a chain of movie theaters, data would be gathered from ticket sales and concession sales. Information systems would help transform this into meaningful information, such as determining the types of movies popular in certain regions, times and days of the week that people most often saw movies, what snacks were the most popular.This information would be valuable in making decisions, such as offering ticket discounts during less popular time slots, and offering more popular snack items. Further feedback based on the results of these decisions could determine whether these decisions were effective. 89) How does a company's use of information systems affect its corporate strategies? Provide an example. Answer: A firm's ability to effectively use information technology is interdependent with its ability to implement corporate strategies and achieve corporate goals.More and more, th e ability to compete and succeed depends on a company's ability to implement technology. What a business would like to do in the future can depends on what its systems will be able to do. Examples of this might be a company who invests in information systems that enable it to create new products or to make its distribution system more efficient, allowing the company to become the low-cost producer. 90) The information systems of Accenture, a global consulting firm, allow for a highly decentralized organization without a traditional headquarters.Based on your reading of Chapter 1, which of the six strategic business objectives does Accenture's information systems contribute to? Answer: Student answers will vary. The following is an example of a possible answer: Accenture's information systems allow its mobile workforce to be within easy, constant reach of its customers, contributing to the business objective of customer and supplier intimacy. Additionally, the ability of employees to connect to and work with local branch information systems in standard ways, regardless of their location, contributes to more efficient processes and operational excellence.

Bacterial Conjugation

Bacterial conjugation is one of the basic methods by which simple organisms, such as the single-celled bacterium, reproduce. It is a very basic form of copulation that often involves a transfer of DNA but no recombination following the said transfer. It occurs following the docking together of two bacteria, a donor and a recipient. It is sex in the bacterial world. The process of conjugation is made possible by â€Å"the presence of certain plasmids in the donor bacteria that possess genes for making the proteins involved in docking and transfer.† (The Columbia encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2004) These plasmids are the ones carried forward from one bacteria to the other bacteria. A plasmid is an â€Å"extra-chromosomal† piece of bacterial DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). Plasmids are maintained inside the bacterial cell, replicating fast enough until they are passed on to bacterial progeny as the bacteria divide. Plasmids are just like chromosomes. They are circular and essen tially double-stranded DNA.The distinct characteristics that set apart plasmids from chromosomes are in their size and the genes that they carry. Plasmids are much smaller in size than chromosomes. Plasmids carry only genes that are essential. Bacteria are an interesting group of organism. In order to better comprehend how bacteria multiplies, and replicates its genes, there is a need to understand its structure. Bacteria are â€Å"microscopic unicellular prokaryotic organisms characterised by the lack of a membrane-bound organelles.† (The Columbia encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2004) Bacteria are remarkably adaptable to diverse environmental conditions: they are found in the bodies of all living organisms and on all parts of the earth — in land terrain and ocean depths, in arctic ice and glaciers, in hot springs, and even in the stratosphere. Most bacteria are of one of three typical shapes — rod-shaped (bacillus), round (coccus), and spiral (spirillum). The cytop lasm and plasma membrane of most bacterial cells are surrounded by a cell wall.In bacteria, the genetic material is organized in a continuous strand of DNA. This circle of DNA is localized in an area called the nucleoid, but there is no membrane surrounding a defined nucleus. In addition to the nucleoid, the bacterial cell may include one or more plasmids. Some bacteria are capable of specialized type of genetic recombination which involves the transfer of nucleic acid by individual contact, that is, the process of conjugation. Recombination involves a â€Å"process of shuffling genes by which new combinations can be generated.† (The Columbia encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2004) Genetic recombination in bacteria may be mediated by transformation, transduction, or conjugation. In these methods, genetic transfers occur unidirectionally from donor to recipient bacteria and only a fraction of the genetic material of a donor cell is transferred to a recipient, which, on the other han d, contributes its cytoplasm as well as its entire genome. In conjugation, the genetic contribution of the donor (male) is incomplete and is genetically and physiologically determined.In so doing, â€Å"the system of conjugation is well adapted to providing information about the nature and organization of the bacterial chromosome as a whole as well as to the study of nuclear-cytoplasmic interactions. † (Burdette et. al. 1963) In E. coli bacteria, the transmissible sex factor responsible for the donor state, and thus for fertility, was called F, donor cells being F+ and recipient cell F-. From population of F+ cells, strains of a new type of donor called Hfr (for high frequency of recombination) were occasionally isolated.Both F+ and Hfr donors share the following characteristics that distinguish with F- recipients: they possess similar surface properties that enable them to pair specifically and to mate with F- cells with comparable efficiency; they have the actual or potenti al ability to transfer genetic determinants to recipients, although the nature of the determinants so transferred by the two types of donor may be of quite different kinds; each type of donor has the potentiality to mutate to the other or to the F- type; and both types are under the control of a specific genetic structure, the sex factor F.F functions as a genetic particle insofar as it is stably inheritable by progeny, is transmissible in crosses, and is the determinant of those properties that characterize donor cells. (Burdette et. al. 1963) The facts recounted above and the interpretations they have engendered may now be brought together to form a unified picture of the mating system in E. coli. The sexual differentiation of E. coli into males and females is genetically controlled by the presence or absence of a sex factor, F, that has the properties of an episome and is more akin in its behavior to temperate bacteriophage than to a normal genetic determinant.The propensities of male cells, in turn, are governed by the state in which the sex factor exists in them. F+ male cells, which harbor the sex factor in its autonomous state, preserve a continuous linkage group and, on conjugation, transfer only their sex factor and other extrachromosomal elements to females. They have the potentiality, however, to generate a spectrum of Hfr male types, each characterized by a linear, transferable chromosome the extremities of which are defined by the integration of the sex factor at one of a variety of chromosomal sites; only the proximal part of the linear chromosome is transferred with high efficiency.Such modified sex factors serve as efficient vehicles for the transport to female cells of their incorporated segments of male chromosome, with the result that stable, partial diploids for various regions of the chromosome can readily be synthesized. (Burdette et. al. 1963) Formation of the zygote extends from the initial collision between an Hfr and an F- cell to the completion of chromosomal transfer and comprises the stages of collision, effective contact formation, and chromosomal transfer.In interrupted mating, a number of different Hfr markers are selected, each is found to enter the zygotes at a different time that is specific for each marker under standard conditions. The times of entry of the various markers correspond to their order of arrangement on the chromosome and are proportional to their distances from O where O indicates the extremity (leading locus) which first penetrates the recipient cells during conjugation. The peculiarity of conjugation resides in the mechanism by which genetic transfer is accomplished.This is expressed by the fact that, when different selections are made, the different genetic characters of a given Hfr strain are transmitted to recombinants with different frequencies depending on their distances from O. The system thus lends itself to an original and convenient method of mapping, in terms of time of tran sfer. Moreover, mapping is greatly facilitated by the availability of a number of different Hfr strains that transfer different parts of the chromosome at high frequency. In all systems other than conjugation in E.coli, the only practical way of measuring the distance between genetic loci is by comparing the frequency with which recombination occurs between them. In conjugation two additional methods of measurement are available, in terms of transfer time and of the decay of P32 atoms, both of which are absolute and independent of the recombination process and so provide the means of interpreting recombinational events in physical terms. Therefore, bacterial conjugation’s significance in gene mapping exists in its capability to determine the precise positioning of genes on the genome. Studies concerning a peculiar bacterial strain, E.coli Hfr, which engaged in conjugation with surprising frequency, paved the way for its use in 21st century genetics. â€Å"By sundering conjug al bugs at various times during mating, geneticists Francois Jacob and Elie Wollman were able to determine that the male transferred a complete copy of its genome like one long piece of spaghetti. The implications of the notorious â€Å"coitus interruptus† experiment and the resulting â€Å"spaghetti hypothesis† were clear: by carefully monitoring the time at which each trait was transferred, the two researchers could determine the precise positioning of genes on the genome.In this way they plotted the first crude genomic map of a bacterium. † (Hirsch 1999, p. 145) References Burdette, WJ 1963, Methodology in Basic Genetics, Holden-Day, San Francisco. Hirsch, AE (1999, Spring). Of Flies, Mice and Men†, American Scholar, p. 145. Johnson, AD (2002, Spring). â€Å"Living with Microbes†, The Wilson Quarterly, pp. 42+. Rheinberger, HJ (ed. ) & Gaudilliere, JP 2004, Classical Genetic Research and Its Legacy: The Mapping Cultures of Twentieth-Century Geneti cs, Routledge, New York.

Iago’s soliloquies are embarrassing and outdated

â€Å"It is through Iago's soliloquies that the audience gain most insight and enjoyment† How far do you agree with these views and what is your opinion? Iago's soliloquies feature throughout the play Othello and allow the audience to see the true feelings he has for other characters and his motives for his evil actions throughout the play. These two critical opinions show contrasting views of the value these soliloquies have to the audience and to the play itself. When Shakespeare wrote Othello, actors on the stage would often interact with the audience and involve them within the play. Soliloquies were an opportunity for an actor in his role to explain his motives and way of thinking to the audience. This is shown when Iago asks ‘and what's he then that says I play the villain? ‘ directly asking the audience to question their opinion of him or become accomplices of his evil plan. To a modern audience this interaction with the actors is rare and outdated so to many Iago's soliloquies just appear to be a man speaking to himself on stage. This can be embarrassing for the modern audience and also the actor playing Iago who has to deliver the lines convincingly. Another problem for the actor is that in Shakespearean times plays would be performed in open-air theatres during daylight with the audience stood right in front of the stage. This is different to modern day theatres that are enclosed and dark with the audience sitting further away from the stage. This makes the relationship between actors and audience less intimate, which may make the soliloquy less effective and therefore outdated. At the end of his soliloquies Iago ends in a rhyming couplet such as in Act 1 Scene 1: ‘hell and night must bring this monstrous birth to light' which to modern audiences is slightly outdated and may associate Iago with a stereotypical villain in a pantomime who plots against the ‘good' guy, in this case Othello. In pantomimes, the villain similarly interacts with the audience and uses hyperbolic language with rhymes, dark imagery and rhetoric questions as Iago does. Therefore, Iago's soliloquies may be perceived as outdated and embarrassing for an audience who see Iago's representation as a villain as stereotypical and childish Iago's soliloquies may seem outdated and embarrassing for an audience due to his racist language repeatedly referring to Othello as ‘Moor' and as a ‘devil'. A modern audience may not understand the racial term ‘moor' due to it being out of date, particularly as other characters use it a non racial way. The way his soliloquies are set out in blank verse and in iambic pentameter may also be embarrassing for the audience and increase Iago's association with the pantomime villain. When Othello was first staged, blank verse would indicate a serious, important part of the play and the audience would understand this switch from prose. Modern audiences without understanding the literary device may therefore find it outdated and fail to understand why an actor would be talking in a regular rhythm only when he was alone on the stage. The view that Iago's soliloquies add little to the play can be justified as Iago never fully shares his plan with the audience often formulating it in his head and claiming that ‘it is engendered' or that 'tis here but yet confused'. Instead the audience only gets to see the beginning of the plan and who he plans to use to deceive Othello. The soliloquies can be seen as unimportant as Iago produces more motives that are unlikely to be true such as his claim that Othello has slept with Emilia, in order to justify his original lies. This can begin to get repetitive and tiring to an audience. Without the soliloquies the audience would not lose out on the plot, only on Iago's insight so it can be argued that they are unnecessary. However, the second critic's view that Iago's soliloquies are insightful and enjoyable can also be explored. Iago is the most important character in developing the plot as without his conniving plans to ruin Othello, Othello's and Desdemona's marriage would probably have survived. It is through his soliloquies that we see how his mind works and how he abuses people's good nature in order to ruin them. The soliloquies allow us to see into Iago's mind, which allows the audience to gain great insight into what he is doing. In Act 1 Scene 1 his first soliloquy reveals a great deal of his opinions of other people and it is though Iago is taking off a mask, suddenly revealing a darker side than we have seen so far. The audience see his true opinion of Roderigo as being a ‘fool' who he is only associating with for ‘sport and profit' and that he is impatient with his idiotic and defeatist talk. He also reveals his reason for bringing about the downfall of Othello is due to rumours he has heard of Othello sleeping with Emilia, which he continues to mention in other soliloquies, claiming ‘the lusty moor hath leaped into [his] seat' in Act 2 Scene 1. Other than this motive, which is possibly a lie in order to justify his evil nature, his other motives are selfish and unfair. Iago intends to ruin Cassio in order to ‘get his place' and later reveals a jealousy for Desdemona. He only expresses his motives within his soliloquies making them insightful to the audience even if they are only to defend himself. Iago manipulates Cassio's ‘smooth dispose' in order to use it against him and convince Othello that ‘he is too familiar with his wife'. He abuses people's good nature in order to defeat them and the audience can see this through his soliloquies. He knows that Othello will ‘prove to Desdemona a most dear husband' and is ‘of a free and open nature' but plans to use this good nature in order to bring his downfall. The audience sees that he is totally evil by regarding his manipulation of people and their lives as a game, structuring his plan carefully in order for him to cause great damage. His plan to ‘pour†¦ pestilence into [Othello's] ear' shows how he intends to use the trust he has developed with Othello to advise him against Cassio and Desdemona. He again, uses Desdemona who he believes to be ‘virtuous' and ‘fruitful' enjoying the fact that he will ‘turn her virtue into pitch' by using her ‘goodness' as the ‘net that shall enmesh them all'. The audience can get a true insight into Iago's nature of being spiteful and wicked, which would not be as clearly seen if the soliloquies were removed. The audience can almost see the way his brain is working and his language shows this. He uses repetition such as ‘How? How? ‘ as he puts together his plan and there are often small pauses and contemplative moments such as ‘let me see now' to reflect his plan coming together. His dark mind is reflected through his language with images of ‘hell' ‘devils' with the ‘blackest sins' and poison. For the audience, this can be exciting as they are involved in his plan, almost acting as accomplices. They hold a greater awareness of what is going on in the play than the rest of the characters and so can foreshadow Othello's downfall. The audience are far more likely to be sympathetic for Othello by knowing the true evil nature of Iago through his speeches, particularly in knowing that even Iago, who sees the worst in people admits that Othello is ‘of constant, loving, noble nature'. In my opinion, the second critic's view that Iago's soliloquies are insightful and enjoyable is the most justified. Without his soliloquies the audience would be unaware of how Iago's plans come together, his motives or how he views the other characters. When he is with other characters it is almost as if he is wearing a mask to cover up his true feelings. He plays the honest and trustworthy friend and it is only when he is alone does his true nature show and the audience discovers that this is a clever manipulating method that he uses, knowing Othello ‘thinks men honest that seem to be so'. The first critics opinion that Iago's soliloquies are embarrassing and outdated can be a problem due to modern audiences not being used to this device. However, it can also be refreshing for an audience to experience this different way of acting and enjoyable to be involved in Iago's plot. As a modern audience we should understand that the play was written in a society that was different from today and therefore be less judgemental on how outdated it is. The critic's view that they ‘add little to the play' is, in my opinion less justified. The soliloquies may not be essential to the actual plot of the play but they provide a great by giving the audience an opportunity to understand Iago's character. As an audience we can foreshadow the upcoming events in the play and therefore be more interested as it all unravels. An audience will feel more hatred towards Iago due to his soliloquies and therefore feel more sympathy for the other characters as he causes their downfall. Instead of providing little to the play, they provide a great deal by stirring up the audiences emotions to the characters. Overall, I believe Iago's soliloquies to be of great insight and enjoyment to the audience as they allow an audience to see into his mind and be aware of his plot to bring Othello's downfall. Instead of being outdated and embarrassing they are insightful and enjoyable as audiences can directly witness his harsh and wicked nature.

Genocide in Rwanda Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Genocide in Rwanda - Dissertation Example The two groups had different economic roles and responsibilities, the Tutsis were pastoralist while the Hutus were farmers. These are the main economic activities between the two major groups. The Hutus arrived and settled in the region long before the Tutsis came later. The Tutsis are Nilotic and taller slender and having a paler skin with thin lips. On the other hand, the Hutus are shorter, darker and stalker, having a flat nose and thick lips. This means the two ethnic groups were very different both economically and physically. The colonial powers considered Tutsis superior to Hutus in terms of their appearance and skin color; paler. The German and Belgian colonialists use the Tutsis in extending their colonial agenda. The colonial governments passed laws that required everybody to carry identity cards that classified ten as Hutu or Tutsi. This broadened the breach amid the two sets even further. Studies show that the nation`s populace concentration is one of the highest globally . The populace concentration tops that of the populous nations in Africa. It then started by small violence a form of resistance by Hutus against Tutsis. This spirally escalated into a big problem as the struggle spread into other areas of society. In later years, the economic growth of Rwanda was hindered by the drought that affected the country and exposed the two communities to many environmental problems; fertility loss, soil erosion, and deforestation. All this forms the essential links to what created the problems and led to ethnic clashes. In the late 1990s, the then Tutsi activist Habyarimana took a Tutsi led attempted invasion on Rwanda. This according to studies, this led to the first civil war that caused more than a million Rwandan to be physically displaced and they fled into settlement camps (Bloxham 45). The situation causes young and desperate Rwandan to join militia groups in readiness to avenge. The need for vengeance as a way of solving immediate problems meant th at more blood had to be shade. From the previous fact that Rwandans population has since been bloated and it still grows, any unstable environmental factor brought with it. The droughts caused social stress on the resources that were scarce because of an increased population; Hutus were fighting for the scarce farmland while the Tutsis thought they had bigger powers to control the pastoral lands in relation to their political dominance. This meant that ethnic clashes were inevitable reaction given to one problem resulted in another problem. For instance, the Hutus struggled and formed militia groups as a formidable force for battle.

Comparing and contrasting the Frye standard, [Frye vs. United States Term Paper

Comparing and contrasting the Frye standard, [Frye vs. United States (293 F. 1013 (DC Cir 1923)], with the Daubert standard [Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (509 U.S. 579 (1993) - Term Paper Example s called â€Å"Fyre in drag.† Problems have come up with this standard, due to the fact that it has led to eyebrows being raised regarding the vitality of the standard and on its flexibility to be able to adjust to different situations and fresh and new scientific matters, where "general" or "widespread" approval is not gathered. Conversely, whether fresh or new, supposedly scientific matters are issues of significance to the court have been quizzed. As a substitute to this standard, many law courts apply Rule 702 of the  Federal Rules of Evidence, as the basis for professional testimony and scientific evidence. In my essay I will provide an explanation of how courts view science and how that view has changed over the last century. I will make also make a prediction of future evidentiary issues for forensic evidence and explain whether forensic evidence in criminal investigations and trials will increase or decrease over the next two decades.   Jason Daubert and Eric Schuller were born with abnormal birth problems that relate to the physicality of the body. Both them together with their real parents had decided to take legal action against Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc, which is a branch of Dow Chemical Company, which is solely situated in some state court in the state of California in the United states of America, They believed that a specific drug in the name of Bendectin had caused the birth abnormalities. Merrell Dow thus transferred the case to federal court, and then made the move for Summary judgment owing to the fact that their legal committee submitted records indicating that no published scientific research and experimentation pointed out a connection between Bendectin and birth abnormalities. Daubert and Schuller, forwarded their professional evidence formulated by themselves which postulated that Bendectin might cause abnormalities resulting from the birth process. In the case in the year 1923, Frye vs united states, 293 F1013(D.C Cir 1923), the